Tonight I attended a social mixer co-hosted by Google and the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), a nationwide membership organization of several thousand nonprofit technology professionals who want to help nonprofits use technology more effectively.

Not only did the event offer DJ Hey Man! -- Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Executive Director of the Craigslist Foundation -- the opportunity to show off his skills as a DJ, but it brought together nearly 150 members of nonprofits to hear such speakers as Katrin Verclas of NTEN, and Ami Dar of Idealist.org, plus Camron Assadi, Partnerships Officer for Mercy Corps, and Daniel Heath, Network Administrator for the East Bay Community Recovery Project, discuss ways in which nonprofits can take advantage of the latest technology trends to support their programs, and their experiences with Google Apps.

The gathering also gave us the chance to announce that we're extending the Google Apps Education Edition to registered nonprofits in the U.S. The idea for this program extension emerged from conversations we had with local nonprofits. We realized that the Education Edition of Google Apps, our hosted suite of communication and collaboration tools -- free for educational institutions -- fits well with the vital need among nonprofits for easy-to-use, flexible technologies requiring little or no investment. We hope such features as email migration, 24/7 assistance and integration APIs, in addition to the standard email, calendaring and online document collaboration tools will enable nonprofits to worry less about technology and focus more on fulfilling their mission -- in whatever field of advocacy, policy, civil, social or environmental welfare (to name a few) they may be.